


Hekapoo Goes Hunting

by Shock_Cooling



Category: Firebase, Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Gen, Military, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-06 14:03:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11602158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shock_Cooling/pseuds/Shock_Cooling
Summary: While conducting experiments to simulate the abilities of a reality warping monster called the River God on the loose in Vietnam during the later stages of the American intervention. The US Army accidentally summons the interdimensional sorceress Hekapoo. After a moment of confusion and a mutual demonstration of both sides abilities Hekapoo agrees to help the military deal with the reality warper. At a price.





	1. What is your multidimensional malfunction!?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Habit Hard to Break](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9982967) by [Akeara4](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akeara4/pseuds/Akeara4), [Grade_A_Sexual](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grade_A_Sexual/pseuds/Grade_A_Sexual). 



> After reading A Habit Hard to Break, I stumbled upon a YouTube short film called Firebase by Oats Studios. That night I had a dream where the two storylines kinda wove together in my subconscious mind. Over July Fourth of 2017 the bulk of the story kinda fell out of my head and into my computer. I would suggest watching SVFOE episode "Running with Scissors" and Firebase before reading.

February 12 1972. 

"All sensors running?" 

"Check." 

"Power?"

"Grid is operating at peak efficiency." 

"Calibration?" 

"All systems green." 

"Emergency cutoff?" 

"Ready." 

"Alright everyone, I want five one second pulses, no need to push things any farther than we have to. Once we have a baseline we can go from there. I was really hoping it wouldn't come to this but here we go. May god have mercy on our souls if we fuck this up. Give me fifteen percent power." 

Knobs were spun, huge amounts of electricity were consumed by racks of sophisticated machines. The scientists in the huge underground bunker buried in the heavily guarded vastness of the Dugway Proving in Utah looked cautiously through thick goggles, layers of bulletproof glass, sandbags and a concrete and steel structure about as thick as the worlds strongest bank vault. Containing the device they had cobbled together which synthesized the exotic effects created by a being that should not have existed. 

An anomaly formed, a small grey smudge. It only lasted a second, but everyone saw it. Data flowed through the sensors. Another pulse of energy, another smudge. The operator took a calculated risk, less time between pulses, ten percent more power. The smudge formed into an oval on the third pulse, roughly a foot by two feet high. On the fourth pulse it was two feet by four. On the fifth pulse it was big enough to drive a car through. 

He smiled, looked around to make sure that the universe wasn't collapsing in on itself and shouted triumphantly. 

"Shutdown everything! Full system shutdown, we have what we need!"

While the rest of the five scientists ran through the shutdown procedure their leader examined the reams of data being pumped out by the sensors. His eyes wide with wonder, he gushed at what had been collected. 

"Unbelievable, three years of work and we have data that we could spend lifetimes going through. There hasn't been a breakthrough like this since the particle accelerator was invented. There aren't enough superlatives in the English language to describe this." 

A man in a US Army colonels uniform placed a hand on the scientists shoulder. "Remember why we are doing this and who is paying the bills here Dr Hastis, we need to deal with the situation in Southeast Asia before we go gallivanting across the universe." 

"Not the universe Colonel Brickerson, the multiverse." 

"Scientists, always off in their own little fantasy world." Thought the Colonel. 

The relief that everyone was enjoying was suddenly interrupted by what appeared to be a fire breaking out in the middle of the observation room. It solidified into a circular portal, another anomaly had formed. Outside the containment chamber. Nowhere near the massive auto destruct charges and Claymore mines set up as a fail safe. This anomaly was different. Red and yellow instead of gray and much more well defined than the first one. Doctor Hastis screamed. 

"I told you to cut the power!" 

A scientist replied in an incredulous tone. 

"We did! This isn't us, this isn't the machine! Everything is off." 

The Colonel shouted, "damn it Hastis, this is precisely what we were worried about. But oh no, every precaution will be taken, you say, we won't create another uncontrollable anomaly you say. But you did and now we are fucked!" 

The Colonel drew his pistol and leveled it at the portal. A 45 auto is a pretty good deterrent to most humans. But he knew full well that whatever was about to come out of that portal wasn't going to be human. Best case scenario he was going to be sucked into some other world where he would be on the losing side of a war like that poor burnt bastard Bracken. More likely he was about to be turned inside out, then resurrected into some kind of abomination. That's what happened to most of the monsters victims. Eight rounds, hopefully that would be enough for him to drive back whatever was about to arrive just long enough for him to kill himself. 

Something stepped out of the portal. It wasn't human, shaped like a human, but unmistakably not human. About a foot shorter than the Colonel, though the horns more than made up the height difference. Skin an unearthly ashen grayish white. Spikes on its arms and elbows, yellow and red eyes, pointed ears, long flowing red hair. Wearing a yellow ball gown and a plume of flame perfectly balanced between its two horns. It opened its mouth to speak, revealing a wicked set of fangs. 

A demon, an honest to god demon. Thought the Colonel. A hundred thoughts stampeded through his mind as the sheer irony and predictability of this failed experiments results stood before him. His jaws tried to articulate a scream of terror but his vocal chords were paralyzed by misfiring signals from his brain. He made no sound as he clicked off the thumb safety of his pistol. 

It spoke in English, in a female voice with no trace of an accent. 

"What do you think you are doing!?" 

No one else in the room could reply. 

"I asked you a question you lunatics, what do you think you are doing!?" 

Hastis stammered. 

"Um, we are conducting experiments on the nature of reality." 

"Bullshit! You are creating inter-dimensional portals. And you are doing so without magical equipment, no oversight, not even a set of dimensional scissors? How is that even possible? You don't have any magic on this planet besides parlor tricks. How the fuck are you blowing holes in the fabric of space-time itself!?" 

The Colonel stammered, "uh, we are replicating the conditions generated by a monster thousands of miles from here. He is wreaking havoc, making dimensional portals, reanimating the dead, tearing apart machines of war like they are made of paper." 

"You have a reality warper on the loose? What's his name?" 

"We don't know what he calls himself. He doesn't talk to us, to anyone. Everyone who knows of him calls him the River God." 

"Well I don't know any River God's and any magical entity from the rest of the multiverse who showed up here and would have proudly told you their name. If they ever bothered to come to this psychotic watery rock. I am going to need you to tell me everything about this River God of yours so I can deal with him. I also need you to tell me everything you are doing here. I'm probably going to have to shut whatever this is down for your own good once I have a handle on what's going on." 

The Colonel snapped the safety back on his gun. This demon from who knows where had just given him the best news he had gotten since his wife told him that she was pregnant with their third child. A solution to the River God and the shutdown of Project Harlequin in the same day. A crooked smile emerged across his face as his body reacted to this incredibly abrupt complete reversal of its emotional state. 

Suddenly the door to the lab burst open. Someone had called security, ten heavily armed Military Police had poured into the room. They were facing the creature Colonel Brickerson and Dr Hastis stood behind her. The lead MP shrieked. "What the hell is that!" 

Brickerson shouted, "it's okay, she is friendly drop your weapons now!" 

A scientist shouted, "no, she is here to stop us. Take her out, now!" 

Brickerson didn't know exactly what was going to happen next. There were several possibilities, he always bet on the worst case scenario coming true and so far that bet had always paid off. He threw away his pistol and launched himself at Dr Hastis. Screaming the words, "stand down, that's an order!" As the two men hit the ground. 

One of the MPs opened up. Some gangly looking kid with a face still pockmarked with acne. That kid should have never been in the military, let alone facing whatever the hell had just materialized in the middle of the lab. He had set his M16 to fully automatic. Shell casings arced through the air as the rest of the MPs opened up. 

Hundreds of bullets flew at the creature. As they hit they erupted in a puff of dust. Within seconds all of their magazines were empty, with no more effect than piles of spent brass, a few pockmarks in the walls from the occasional miss and everyone's ears ringing. 

Colonel Brickerson rolled off the winner of the 1955 Nobel prize in physics to see the creature still standing. She didn't look mad, or even surprised, she looked... Amused. She laughed. Not an evil laugh, or in derision. A laugh of genuine amusement. She asked, "is that the best you got?" 

She split into two, then four, then eight, then ten copies of herself. The ten of her stepped towards the MPs. She grabbed their empty rifles, melting the plastic hand guards in her grip. She was moving to strike their necks, if she could melt heat resistant plastic with her bare hands what could she do to flesh and bone? The Colonel screamed, "stop, please!" 

The creatures turned around, hesitating in their attack. 

"They are just kids, dumb, trigger happy kids. Please don't hurt them, I'm begging you!"

The creatures looked back at the MPs. In one fluid motion they seized them and threw them one by one into the fiery portal in the middle of the room. One of them grabbed the scientist who had started the chaos and hurled him into the portal. The creatures followed him in. 

The portal remained, glowing in the middle of the room. Dr Hastis stood up and brushed off the dust on his lab coat. 

"What, uh, what do you suppose happened to them?" 

"I don't know Doctor, but I don't like it. Whatever this thing is it has us completely outmatched. Come on, get your notes, let's have a look at the data from the sensors and see what we can learn from this portal." 

"I thought you were supposed to be this projects designated wet blanket Colonel?" 

"Yeah well, I guess I'm warming up to your work." 

Equipment was moved, sensors aimed at the containment chamber were aimed at the portal in the observation room. Cameras had just been turned on when someone fell out of the portal. It was one of the MPs, only now he was wearing what appeared to be parts of a medieval suit of armor. 

He was followed by another, and another. "Get this gear out of the way!" Shouted Dr Hastis. Within moments all ten of the MPs had been returned to the observation room. They looked different, their uniforms were in shreds, what few of them were still wearing army uniforms. All of them wore bits of metal armor. On their belts they carried various weapons like axes, swords and spears. Half of them had lost their guns, the ones who still had guns held worn out pieces of junk. Held together with wire, their anodized finish scarred by battle, worn from constant use. 

The first man out of the portal staggered to his feet and grabbed the Colonel by his collar screaming, "sir, how long were we gone!?"

He checked his watch. "Fourteen minutes corporal." 

"What!? No! We were gone for years, decades, we fought our way across a medieval world filled with monsters and magic. We journeyed forever seeking a way home. We fought monsters, we laid the foundation for a whole new society. How long were we gone Colonel!?" 

"Fourteen minutes! look at my watch corporal. Tell me, doesn't everything in this room look the same as when you barged in here shooting, minus the big camera here?" 

His grip relaxed. 

"Fourteen minutes, we were gone for fourteen minutes?" 

"That's how long you have been gone from this room soldier." 

"But I got married, I raised a family. We fought twenty foot tall walking crocodiles. An invasion of weretigers. Oh god, oh god." 

He stumbled over to the bulletproof glass between the observation room and the containment chamber. He studied his face in the reflection, the same fresh, slightly acne marred face that he had fourteen minutes and so many years ago. He screamed and started crying. Confusion, rage, and sadness erupted across his face. The other nine MPs ran over to the glass. Within moments they were all wailing with the agony of men who had lost everything. 

The creature came back, carrying the scientist she had dragged through the portal by the scruff of his neck. She threw him to the ground, the MPs turned to her and began to howl a demand. 

"Please, please let us go back!" 

"No, that was your punishment for trying to kill me. I'm sorry that you had to be introduced to the wider multiverse that way. Wait, I'm not sorry, you shouldn't have been stupid enough to shoot at something that looks like me. Now get out of this room, the adults need to talk." 

The MPs ran out of the room, visibly afraid of the creature. The scientist who had caused the shooting just twitched around in the fetal position, catatonic. The creature stepped over him and addressed the Colonel. 

"I learned a lot from Mr, sorry, Dr Navarro as the angry tool cowering on the ground insisted that I address him as. I should be able to deal with the River God of yours, but, ugh, I think I am going to need your help for this."

Colonel Brickerson replied, "we would be glad to help, anything you want. But I am going to need some time to get the people together who can get you what you need." 

"Alright, how much time do you want?" 

"Uh, let's say, forty eight hours. Oh wait, it looks like time might work differently where you are from. Here, take my watch, once the little hand passes..." 

"I know how a watch works. Okay, 48 hours from now. You had better have everyone you need or they miss out. Your headquarters is a big stone Pentagon right?" 

"The Pentagon, can't we do the meeting here?" 

"Nah, it's too cramped and dark here. I want to meet at the Pentagon." 

"Alright, yeah, Pentagon, forty eight hours. I think I can manage that."

"Cool, see you there."

As she stepped towards the portal Dr Hastis shouted, "wait, what's your name?" 

"You can call me Hekapoo. See you in two days Doctor Hastis." 

She turned around and murmured kindly, "you too, Colonel Brickerson."


	2. Staring at the impossible.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some mundane utility combined with a mad scientist trying to understand magic. A shorter chapter.

The MPs were separated from each other and interrogated, one by one. Their stories stretched into hours of descriptions of fantastical adventures. Their clothes were utterly filthy with the stains of years of time and activity. Every single one of them wanted to go back. They pleaded for their interrogators to make a deal with Hekapoo so they could go back to their lives in the world that she had hurled them into. 

Once the interrogation was underway Colonel Brickerson went back to the laboratory. Dr Hastis was examining one of the rifles and battle axes of the MPs. 

"So Colonel, did you tell the Pentagon what's coming for them?"

"Yeah, they're pissed, they are going to have to evacuate the building. For the next week there are going to be a lot of inconvenienced military officers and bureaucrats roaming around Washington, D.C. I suppose we got lucky that she is going to show up during a federal holiday."

"Well, if they need any more evidence of our guests abilities and sincerity..." 

He said while holding up the axe. 

"No, I think the tapes, data and pictures of our security staff have probably gotten the point across. On that subject have you learned anything new?" 

"Yes, the rifle is still an M16. Albeit one that is totally worn out. The rifling is gone, I would be amazed if it could get three shots off without jamming. It looks like they found a half decent smokeless powder substitute in the other dimension. They didn't have much ammo left, their shell cases look like they were reloaded with powder and the most crudely made metal jacketed bullets I have ever seen in my life, over and over again.

"What's interesting about these rifles is that the hand guard and pistol grip have been replaced by a wood which is completely unlike any on Earth. It's light as balsa, yet stronger than any wood I have ever seen. It's almost as strong as fiberglass. It also has one other curious quality." 

He pulled out an eye dropper, "saline solution, now watch what happens when I put it on the wood." 

The drop fell, it absorbed into the wood. After a minute the area where the saline had been applied went from a dull brown to a radiant shine like ebony. 

"This wood absorbs moisture and salt from the environment and uses it as a preservative. This shouldn't be possible according to our current knowledge of chemistry, yet here it is. This wood is probably what allowed these guns to keep functioning after years in primitive conditions. It would make an ideal material for building boats, even aircraft. But that's nothing comped to this." 

He handed the axe to the Colonel. "It's light, well balanced, that's a nice axe Doctor." 

"My initial examination suggests that the material is mostly iron, not steel, iron. It is alloyed to other metals I have never seen before. This is the sharpest and most durable blade I have ever seen in my life. It will probably be a month until spectral analysis is concluded but I would be willing to bet my last dollar that most of what they find will not fit on the periodic table." 

The Colonel swung the axe a couple of times. The possible uses of something this light and strong, yet made out of cheap iron clicked in his mind. "Materials like this might explain the Soviet fighters that Sgt. Bracken saw in the other South Carolina. If the Russians had some of this stuff they could probably build those impossible vertical takeoff and landing fighters that he claimed to have seen." 

"That's what I'm thinking Colonel. Eyewitness accounts and smudges of inexplicable residues are one thing, but to actually have evidence, in your hand." 

The Colonel held the axe somberly as flashbacks began to pour through his mind. It seemed like it was only yesterday that he had been leading hundreds of men into an utterly futile battle against something that could, according to that damn CIA puke, break reality itself. Even though he had seen it he still found it hard to believe that thing had existed even though it was the only explanation for the expunging of Firebase's Tarheel and Quattro from the face of the Earth. He had been the only survivor, tasked with working towards finding a way to defeat the River God. Months of work with the maddest scientists Uncle Sam could find had led to this. Not an ending, but just possibly the beginning of the end. 

"A multiverse... you believed in it Doctor but I, I wanted there to be some other explanation. As scary as the River God is, this, this seems even worse. Something out there might just decide to rip a hole in the fabric of spacetime and out comes an invasion of monsters that we don't stand a chance in hell of fighting." 

"Yes that's the peril, but you must also see the promise. As you said if the Soviets could make more of the metal that axe is made of they could disrupt the balance of power. But they don't have it, we do. As for armies marching through dimensional portals, that hasn't happened yet and I think there is a reason for that. Entities like Hekapoo, I mean look at what she said when she appeared. She was talking to us like a parent who just caught their kid with their hand in a cookie jar. Or a policeman who had caught a man breaking into a car."

"So you think this Hekapoo might be some enforcer of dimensional travel? No, she tortured those men for decades, anything that does something like that cannot be trusted." 

"From what they told me she didn't torture them, she taught them a lesson. And you remember why, they shot her! My ears are still ringing Colonel!" 

"What about Navarro, he is still catatonic!" 

"Yeah, she probably tortured him, but he started it. I think the lesson here is that we are messing with things that are well beyond our understanding." 

The Colonel burst out laughing, "that's, that's exactly what I have been saying for the past two years Doctor! That's why I wanted Project Harlequin shut down! Because of crap like this!" 

"Well I guess I see your point Colonel, but don't think you don't have a part in this too. What did you call the MPs? Dumb trigger happy kids! I know you have looked in their eyes, they may have the bodies of 18 to 20 year olds, but those MPs aren't children anymore." 

The Colonel swallowed hard, the realization that he may have sent those men to an ironic hell hit him like a gunshot to the stomach. So many had been killed in the fight against the River God. So many more in the war that had manifested his evil. Perhaps he should consider himself lucky that these poor men had escaped a similar entity with their lives, health and sanity. He tersely addressed the Doctor. 

"Wrap up your experiments and get some sleep Hastis. We need to get to the Pentagon before she does."


	3. Fun with bureaucracy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The inevitable negotiations that would have to take place before a third power jumps into a war. Also an attempt at an explanation why the Star vs the Forces of Evil multiverse is such an anachronism stew of technologies.

February 14. 1325 hours.  
The Pentagon. 

Colonel Brickerson looked around the courtyard. "Oh this is going to be such a shit-show." He thought as he looked up at the men with rifles and the occasional coilgun. All of these men were special forces of various sorts, Marine Force Recon, SEAL's, Rangers. All armed with the most powerful and in many cases, experimental weapons that the US Department of Defense could get their hands on. Several of them were carrying magazines of ammunition loaded with tungsten and even honest to god silver alloy bullets. 

Brickerson knew they wouldn't last very long if a fight broke out. Whatever this thing was it wasn't a werewolf or a vampire. A monster like that would have been reassuringly comfortable compared to something that could breach dimensions. Monsters of this world, even the paranormal ones could be pounded into oblivion with enough firepower. If this creature was half as powerful as the River God it could probably level the building and eviscerate every man here inside of ten minutes. All the while those fancy bullets would probably prove to be just as effective as the pills that those poor MPs hurled at it two days ago. 

The creature, no, her name was Hekapoo. It was oddly comforting to actually know the name of a being able to violate the laws of nature as opposed to just calling it something like the River God. 

"Do you really think she is going to show?" Asked a man in an Air Force generals uniform to Colonel Brickerson. 

"Oh she is coming, she came across as very sincere when we met. As to where she is going to materialize. I am not so sure about that. She said that she would meet us inside the Pentagon. She could open one of her portals somewhere inside the building but I don't think she is going to. I think she meant inside in a literal sense." 

"Sounds like you two have some kind of connection Colonel." 

"God I hope not sir, I really don't want to become another Sgt. Hines." 

As he looked around Colonel Brickerson sized up the ways this could go wrong. There was a pretty good chance that one of the guards would get trigger happy. The guy from the NSA seemed like he was about to die of fright. Who really worried him though was the man from the CIA. This guy was a virtual carbon copy of that completely out of his depth agent who had died at Quattro. Then again every CIA agent he had to deal with over the past few years, even before he had ever heard of the River God seemed like they were minor variations of the same man cranked out of some factory hidden somewhere in Virginia. Overaggressive weirdos with backgrounds in east coast academia who had washed out of special forces training. Who were so fervent with their patriotism that they seemed to be compensating for something. 

"Compensating for all their fuck ups that have hurt this country so badly." The Colonel thought. 

Doctor Hastis announced, "alright everyone, places, we are at T minus thirty seconds!"

The sound of safeties clicking off of rifles echoed through the courtyard. Followed moments later by the sounds of coilgun's charging and missile launchers being primed for use. Brickerson looked at his new watch. He took a deep breath and felt an unearthly presence. 

He could feel the hair on his arms stand up as the space in front of him started to glow. It wasn't a fiery portal this time. This was a similar shade of gray to the portal they had generated in the lab. A foot in a high heeled shoe stepped out, followed by the body of the second most terrifying thing that the Colonel had ever seen in his life. She smiled at him, showing off those fangs and waved. 

"Hey Colonel, I take it these are the important people you wanted me to meet?" 

"Yes, this is General Fry, of the joint chiefs of staff, Mr Rauch, National Security Agency. Agent Stromberg, Central Intelligence Agency, Mr Casey, our liaison to the Oval Office and Mr Terry from the State Department. 

Mr Terry was the closest to Hekapoo, she walked towards him with her hand extended. He backed away abruptly. 

"What's up, isn't this how you people greet each other?"

"Um, I'm a little wary, I have read what you can do and with all due respect I'm not sure if I should touch you." 

Hekapoo exhaled in an exasperated tone and moved, almost faster than the human eye can see. Suddenly the man from the State Department grabbed the back of his head and cried out in pain. 

"Ow, what the hell?" 

"There, I touched you, now can we get on with it?"

The distinctive odor of burning hair wafted through the courtyard. As he removed his hand revealing the mild singe the men from the CIA and NSA dropped their jaws while General Fry laughed. "Ha, okay I think I like her." Extending his hand he announced. 

"General Harry Fry, an honor to meet you ma'am." 

Their hands met, the general gave a stiff handshake which the sorceress returned. Their eyes met in a moment of mutual respect. Colonel Brickerson and Doctor Hastis sighed in relief as it was starting to look like this was going to be a negotiation instead of a gruesome disaster. 

The group walked together to a conference room set up for the occasion. Around the mahogany table were briefing packages and off in the corner a really nice food service. 

"Would you like something to eat?" Offered Mr Casey.

"Ah, don't mind if I do." She said brightly and helped herself to a large plate which she filled with a sampling of every food on the table. She sat down and with a mouthful of food asked. 

"Now, tell me everything you know about this River God of yours. I didn't get as much information as I wanted out of that Navarro guy." 

Brickerson looked at her and asked, "I don't think it's a good idea for you to be eating while being told about him. This is going to be disgusting." 

While suggestively eating an orange slice she eyed him and stated, "that sounds like a challenge to me Colonel." 

The sorceress was given the Top Secret briefing on the River God. The record of the destruction he had caused. The rumors of his transformation from a simple farmer who had lost everything into a walking incarnation of destruction. The inability of US and Vietcong forces to eliminate him because of his invisibility, strength, telekinesis and general invincibility. Colonel Brickerson explained as he clicked through a slideshow of blurry images. 

"The NVA sent ten thousand men after him after he destroyed one of their hospitals. They were all either killed or went insane. We sent five thousand men backed up with tanks and attack helicopters. He disassembled every machine that attacked him and turned the men into something... else. During a later operation a soldier named Bracken was found to have survived an engagement with the River God. In addition to the horrors he had seen during the battle he claimed to have been sent to an alternate South Carolina which was under attack by Soviet Troops. We wouldn't have believed his story if not for the fact that he had suffered horrible burns which were caused by a chemical concoction that did not exist on this planet until it was discovered on his skin." 

"Our third attempt to take down the River God was built around a US Army soldier with unique abilities. He had somehow lost the need for sleep. He also had telepathy and precognition. Sergeant Hines was equipped with exotic weapons and a shielding system we call a Relativity Capsule to neutralize the River Gods abilities. Backed up with hundreds of elite soldiers and an ungodly amount of firepower from the Air Force he engaged the River God. 

"The battle lasted for a week straight. Every soldier was killed along with almost every civilian in a fifty mile radius. In the end the River God defeated Hines, he held out longer than any human being had any right to. Even with his exotic weapons and shielding device. Recon photos taken during the battle seemed to show the jungle itself gathering around Sgt. Hines, protecting him from the River God as much as it could. The battle went on until the River God..." 

The slideshow stopped, "we have photos of what happened next. But they can't be shown to anyone, not even here. Judging by the evidence, or lack thereof at the battle site he erased Hines from existence. Photos were taken by a reconnaissance plane at the moment of Hines death. No one who has seen photos of the event itself has survived with their sanity. Most simply die from a condition we have never seen before where their brains go haywire. Those who survive seeing the images are driven irrevocably insane. Their symptoms are akin to the most severe cases of schizophrenia."

"After Hines was killed all fighting stopped in Vietnam. There has been a de facto ceasefire in place between the Vietcong, NVA and all SEATO forces in the region. Even the insurgencies in Laos and Cambodia have quieted down. This break in the war seems to have gotten the River God to calm down a bit. But he is still wreaking havoc, just not as much of it since there are not as many soldiers shooting at him to provoke his anger. We have begun negotiations with the NVA and Vietcong on a joint operation to bring everything both sides has to bear on the River God. That would not be an ideal solution partly because it probably wouldn't be effective. But also because it would mean that the existence of reality warping entities would become publicly known outside the battle zone and military high commands of the involved countries. The public panic would be ugly." 

Hekapoo was chasing the last few crumbs off her plate. Laconically, she observed, "seems like things are already rather ugly Colonel." 

"Agreed, so, are you still willing to help us?" 

"Yes, from what you have shown me here the River God is not an inter-dimensional being. Not in the true sense of the word. His violations of the barriers between dimensions have probably been accidental. He had nothing to gain from tossing that guy into an alternate dimension, then bringing him back. He is not a sorcerer either. Magic users study for years and while we may have the occasional hiccup we generally maintain strict control over our powers. This guy is a walking hiccup in the magical sense. He has no spells, no technique, no control, just raw power. His kind are rare in the multiverse, thankfully. When one emerges they have to be brought under control as soon as possible or else they may spread their destruction far and wide. I could kill him myself, but it would be much easier for me to do it with your help. I will make three demands and one request." 

"Alright, what are they?" Asked Casey. 

"First, I am going to need transportation to Vietnam. To the location where Sgt. Hines was erased. I could open a portal to this place but that would run the risk of tipping off the River God to my presence and giving him a possible escape route from this world. The closest that I am willing to open a portal to his realm is on these islands here.

She passed around a map, part of the briefing package she had been given, with the Hawaiian islands circled. 

The men nodded in the affirmative with looks of understanding on their faces as they looked at the map. 

"Second I would like two thousand pounds of aluminum metal. Preferably in a variety of forms, coins, bars, ingots, whatever." 

Expressions of confusion rumbled around the room, Agent Stromberg asked, "um, I'm pretty sure we can fill that request, easily. But why do you want that?" 

"Call it a bribe, if the Magical High Commission finds out that a magically undeveloped world has a reality warper on the loose they will sanction you. Trust me when I say that you do not want them knowing of your existence. Let alone having a guy with a giant crystal for a head and talking snakes for arms trapping everyone in this room in indestructible gems for the rest of eternity. In exchange for one ton of refined aluminum I will not mention Earth to anyone on the Commission. I might even come back in the future in exchange for further payments to help you with your magical development. Aluminum is very hard to make in the rest of the multiverse. Your ability to mass produce it means more than you can possibly realize. I could use that aluminum to do... Wonderful things." 

She shuddered with greed at the possibilities. 

General Fry asked, "third demand?" 

"Oh, the complete cessation of hostilities in Vietnam for the next hundred years." 

Murmurs, Mr Casey stated, "we cannot allow that. We can't let anymore countries fall to the communists. Especially not after everything we have put into South Vietnam." 

"This is non negotiable. You tell me that this Sergeant Hines guy appeared to you to be some sort of chosen one who had been created to deal with the River God. What you don't realize is that Hines was created by the same forces that created the River God in the first place. The incredibly powerful energies that are created in a war zone. Every bullet you fire has an energetic consequence beyond just accelerating a chunk of metal at a target. Slaughtering thousands of people has far worse consequences than anything a gun or a bomb can do on its own. You got lucky with Hines, he could have become another River God. Or something even worse. The River God is a manifestation of reality breaking its own rules to stop the breaking of reality. It is only marginally conscious, but that consciousness has managed to stop the war. If the war doesn't end then all this starts over again when some other guy figures out how to break reality in a fit of sorrow. You already have a de facto truce, just make it permanent. One hundred years, min-i-mum to undo the damage done." 

Looking around the room she saw that the only people who were really taking her seriously were Hastis, Fry and Brickerson. So she stood up from her chair and leaned towards the unconvinced. 

"Listen, I can do this with or without your help. If you don't stop killing each other en mass in that particular part of your planet for the next hundred years I will personally tear your armies apart. Don't worry about going out of the killing business though. You can slaughter each other as much as you like anywhere else on this watery rock of yours. Just, not, there! Or do I need to give you another demonstration of my abilities?" 

The fire above her head grew bigger and brighter. Casey shouted. 

"Okay, we will work with you! No more fighting in Vietnam! What is your final request?" 

"Alright, before I get going to your little war I would like to spend some time in your finest library." 

Hastis announced, "that would be the Library of Congress, we can take you there right now if you like." 

Rauch stood up, "um, perhaps we could schedule a private viewing. No offense Ms Hekapoo but anyone there who saw you would probably be scared half to death." 

"Oh I don't have to look like this, this is just my natural form. I can cast a spell that will allow me to blend in like anyone else." 

She murmured something in a language that no earthling had ever heard. The fire over her head appeared to go out, the horns and spikes dissolved. Her skin took on a darker tone and her eyes took on a radiant shade of green. Once the spell was complete she appeared to be just another human female. Albeit one with unusually long hair. 

A motorcade was gathered to take the sorceress to the library of congress. Colonel Brickerson and Dr Hastis accompanied her along with a large security detail. Hekapoo seemed unimpressed by the limousine but she did ask. 

"Why are all these other machines driving around us?" 

Dr Hastis explained, "for security, if we get attacked these other vehicles will protect us while we escape." 

"You don't just counterattack?" 

"That's, um, not how we do things here." 

"Hmm, okay, seems inefficient to me though." 

Within minutes they were at the library of congress. For the first time Hekapoo looked impressed by something created by the people of Earth. "Wow, I have never seen, I never could have imagined a library this big." 

Hastis replied, "glad to hear that you like it. We cleared everyone out of here for today so you can read anything you..." 

She vanished in a burst of speed, within moments she had piled a stack of books on a nearby table. She started reading the stack at an impossible rate. Starting with books on nuclear physics, geopolitics and weapons design.

While she blazed through the books Brickerson asked a question that had been bothering him for days. 

"Hekapoo, how do you know English?" 

"Oh this isn't my first time on this planet. I used to come here once every couple hundred years or so. This is an odd planet in the universe. Most worlds are in a kind of cultural and technological stasis. Not much changes and when things do change they tend to change for the worse." 

She vanished, returning with another stack of books, ancient history, philosophy, religion, magic. 

"For millions of years Earth was just like so many other places. Then humanity showed up and things started changing really fast. I played a small part in this, see here I am." 

She stopped flipping through a history book and pointed to an image of a statue of a three faced Roman goddess. 

She went back to reading as she explained further. 

"I stayed here for about fifty years, helped some people. They started worshiping me, eventually they got tired of my shit so I left. I came back a couple more times, usually I was just looking around. Occasionally someone would figure out how to summon me. I remember a weirdo named Honorius the third summoning me awhile ago. I made his life a living hell. Some tribe in South America tried to talk me into defending them from some conquistadors. I told them that I wasn't going to help anyone who practiced human sacrifice." 

Another stack, cookbooks, recent military history, space travel, computer design, industrialized metal smelting. 

"The last time I was here was in 1945, you set off a bomb. A really big one in, ah here it is, New Mexico. I saw the flash in my home dimension, it was something that shouldn't have happened. The MHC sent me to investigate and while I was trying to get a handle on what was going on two more of the things went off. Those bombs were so powerful and you were setting off so many that I figured that you were all going to kill yourselves inside of fifteen years. I went home and put Earth out of my thoughts until you turned on that contraption in the bunker that introduced me to you." 

She stopped reading and showed the Colonel an image of the internal components of a Hydrogen Bomb. 

"You will not be allowed to travel between different dimensions with these. Dimensional portals have safeguards in place to prevent the transit of extremely dangerous and unusually powerful devices. If you attempt to move these bombs through a portal it will detonate automatically." 

"Thanks for warning us, but I have to ask, why did you ask permission from us to come to this library. Why couldn't you just walk in here and take the knowledge you needed." 

She leaned back, the camouflage spell broke. All of a sudden she was back to looking like a demon. 

"The illusion spell is a headache, I have to let my fire burn free to use the full extent of my abilities. Second, I have only been here for a few years at a time, I didn't even know this library existed. If I had I would have come here sooner. Third, if I was zipping around this library someone would have noticed me, got scared and would have tried to stop me. I'm not interested in fighting anymore than I have to." 

She vanished again, she returned with more books. These dealt with air conditioning, food preservation, music history and vending machines. Her eyes lit up with fascination as she made a dismissive hand gesture to her companions. 

"Now, if you don't mind, I can talk to you, or read about what you are. But doing both is kinda distracting." 

The Colonel backed off and the Sorceress went back to reading. Once she was done with that stack of books she split into a hundred clones which all moved through the library at an almost unimaginable rate of speed. 

Now and then the original would cut a dimensional portal to who knows where and disappear with a stack of books, only to return moments later. Hastis, Brickerson and a team of CIA archivists could do nothing but watch and try to stay out of her way as the sorceress absorbed the combined knowledge of all of mankind.

After a day of this she announced that she was done reading and wanted to talk to Messrs Brickerson and Hastis again. Who had left to address other matters. The team of CIA archivists assigned to reshelving the mountains of books she blew through collectively sighed in relief. She hadn't read every book in the library, but she had come damn close. 

Brickerson, Hastis and Agent Stromberg returned to the library as fast as they could. Though by the time they arrived they had found that she had become so bored that she had already cut a dimensional portal to leave. 

"Whoa, where are you going?" Hastis shouted. 

"I have to go home, I need to rest and think about the best way to deal with the River God."

"When will you be back?" 

"When can you have an aircraft ready to go to Vietnam?" 

Hastis looked at the CIA agent and asked offhandedly. 

"Oh I don't know? Mr Stromberg, can you?" 

"I can have a C130 ready to go in a day." 

She snorted derisively and stated. 

"Eww, no, not one of those, how about something more comfortable?" 

"I can have a civilian airliner chartered in three days." 

"Okay, I can work with that. See you in Hawaii, Hickam field, three days gentlemen." 

She tapped the watch Brickerson had given her. Took one last look around the library with a smile on her face and vanished into the portal. 

Stromberg excused himself to find a phone. Hastis and Brickerson sat down at the table the original Hekapoo had been stacking books upon for the past four days. 

"Man, that's a lot of trashy romance novels." Observed the Colonel. 

"Yeah, according to her minders she started off with textbooks, dense historical tomes, collections of scientific journals but they say she really seemed to enjoy this stuff. Actually slowed down enough so they could see her hand movements." 

"Well if this is all she was reading then we probably don't have too much to worry about." 

"Yeah but we know that wasn't all she was reading about. She knows who we are now, she knows our technology." 

"What does that change? When she didn't even know our names she ran rings around us. Hell when she stepped through that portal all I could think was that my gun was going to be about as useful as a feather duster." 

"We might have been able to deal with her then, we might have been able to come up with some technology that could neutralize here. And if we could stop her then we could stop the River God. I would rather fight her than that thing." 

"I disagree Doctor, I would rather fight the River God than her. The River God is raw power, an unstoppable evil. She hasn't actually done anything to really hurt us. I would feel guilty attacking her. She hasn't killed anyone. She has the potential for evil, but she doesn't project evil like he does." 

"Doesn't project evil!? are you blind Colonel? She may not act like one but looks like a demon! She told us that she has visited Earth before. She admitted that she was the basis of at least one God of the ancient world. She is probably the archetype of demons." 

"That's another reason why I don't want to fight her Doctor. I think she can do more damage than the River God. The River God isn't able to poof into existence four thousand miles away from his stomping grounds, yet. She can. The River God can't copy himself, she can. No no Dr Hastis. We might be able to defeat the River God but we don't stand a chance against her."

"Well, in three days I suppose we will all find out what kind of power she really has."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear to god I wrote this chapter before I saw the Battle of Mewni. That Hekapoo's one scene in that wound up being so similar to what I imagined in this story freaked me out a bit.


	4. Underpinning Energies.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Picking up some equipment just before engaging in battle, and some speculation on the nature of the magics of this particular fictional universe.

Seventy two hours on the dot after leaving the library of Congress. Colonel Brickerson, Agent Stromberg and a squad of Army Rangers were waiting at a secured runway apron on Hickam field in Hawaii. Like every time she had before, Hekapoo materialized directly in front of the Colonel. She looked him and the rest of the men waiting for her up and down and asked. 

"Is the plane ready?" 

Stromberg replied. 

"Fueled and waiting to go right behind you." 

"Everything else ready?"

"The North Vietnamese have been notified, all of their regular forces have pulled out of the River God's current area of operations. Our forces have fallen back to their bases. Once the River God is liquidated we will begin evacuating from the area." 

"Okay, let's go." 

"Wait, before we go we wanted to give you something." 

Mr Stromberg reached for a briefcase, he opened it for Hekapoo to inspect. 

"Fifteen pounds of aircraft grade aluminum. Various weights and sizes. Consider this a small down payment on our bribe. We have the rest of the aluminum in a secure location. When the River God is neutralized we will gladly give you the rest and any more that you like. The US Government would like to extend our deepest gratitude for your help in this and with any other such crises in the future." 

"Awww, thanks, I mean I know that's your default little diplomatic statement but I really appreciate this." 

She placed the briefcase inside the portal. As she turned around Brickerson announced. "Before we go we have a collection of weapons and other equipment that we would like to offer you." 

"All due respect Colonel, but your weapons are kinda puny by my standards." 

Stromberg insisted, "I wouldn't be so sure about that. We have some new items that could be useful to you. We put a lot of work into getting everything that we could think of." 

"Alright, show me what you got." 

As they walked to the tent where the weapons were stashed her dress suddenly caught fire. Replaced in an instant by a copy of the OG-107 fatigues that Colonel Brickerson was wearing. 

Hekapoo turned around at the gasps of amazement and explained. 

"What, you didn't think I am going to a jungle wearing my usual finery? A dress would get muddy, caught on branches and whatnot." 

Stromberg stammered out, "yeah, but that fire over your head doesn't seem to be very good camoufl..." 

She ran behind him before he could get out the last syllable of the word and whispered, "you let me worry about that you creepy bastard. For now let's have a look at your collection of inadequate weapons." 

Stacked up around the tent was a sampling of weapons dating from the medieval era to the most high tech killing devices mankind had yet made. Like his predecessor Agent Stromberg immediately began rattling off the specifications of the new model of Relativity Capsule that had been developed after the failure of the one used by Hines. Hekapoo took a quick look at it and said, "nope, can't use this. Too heavy, I don't know what it would do to my abilities and I really don't want to find out."

"Okay, how about this, it's a redesigned coil-gun. The boys at the lab call this the eye of Shiva. Instead of firing a chunk of metal it fires a ring of energized particles at one sixth the speed of light. It can destroy matter down to the molecular level. Because it uses charged particles instead of metal it doesn't have recoil that launches you backwards like the older coil-guns do."

"Once again, too heavy and it isn't the right tool for the job. The power source is kind of interesting though." She announced in a curious tone. 

"Alright, is there anything here that you can use?" 

She looked around. For a moment she fiddled with a very old samurai sword. She picked up a halberd and the metal began to glow. She walked out of the tent and made a few motions with it. She looked like she was seriously considering the pole axe when the flame around the blade went out and she discarded it. She contemplated a bow and arrow, drew it and sighted on an empty jeep on the runway. Then she put it down stating, "nah, bows aren't really my thing?" 

Brickerson asked, "how do you feel about guns?" 

She picked up a 9MM pistol with a silencer and stated. "I can see why you people like them. But I just don't have any use for them." 

As she put down the pistol her eyes went wide, "ah, now these I can have some fun with!" 

She picked up an M61 hand grenade. She unscrewed the fuse, inspecting it and the explosive inside the grenade body with genuine fascination. She looked down and cheerfully exclaimed. 

"Oh you have a whole case of these bad boys!" 

After examining the grenades and fuses she wove her hands around manifesting what appeared to be a bundle of needles. Which she carefully placed between the fuse and the body of the grenade. She placed the fuse back in the grenade and started batting it around in her hands. Then dropped it on the concrete. The men nearby instinctively hit the ground expecting an explosion. But she just picked it up and stepped back into the tent. Looking at their reactions she explained. 

"Combining different magics is never a good idea. Combining magic and technology can have, inconsistent results." 

As she put more needles into more grenades she explained further. 

"If I am going to fight a reality warper with these things then I had better be sure that they aren't going to turn me into a puff of dust on the wind if I drop one." 

She placed a bandolier of six grenades on her chest. As she looked at herself she observed, "okay, I think I am properly accessorized, shall we go?" 

Once they were inside the airliner, Stromberg asked. 

"Uh, do you have to keep that flame going inside the plane. I mean it might catch everything on fire, or we die of smoke inhalation before the fiery crash." 

"Don't worry spook." 

She grabbed a fistful of newspaper and placed it inside the flame. 

"See, no burning, on this plane of existence it's just an illusion. Well, unless I get mad or start showing off." 

Brickerson reached cautiously towards the flame. There was a sensation of energy, but no heat. It was stimulating, not painful.

"Whoa, easy there soldier boy, don't want you getting into that." 

Brickerson replied, "sorry, it's just the more time I spend with you the more fascinating you are." 

"Well thank you for the ego stroking, but doesn't that little gold band on your hand tell me that you are married?" 

"Yes, I'm really looking forward to going back to my family once all this is over. My wife is working on our third kid. She is due in a month. I really want to be home for that." 

"Aww, that's sweet. Besides you aren't really my type anyway?" 

"Oh really, then what is your type?" 

"Someone more mature than you." 

"I'm forty five years old, career military, that doesn't seem mature to you?" 

"Not really, people who make a career out of being in a military are some of the most immature people I have ever met. Then there is the issue that by my standards you are in late childhood. I don't know if you are into that sort of age gap but, well, perhaps if I was feeling a little..." 

Hekapoo and the Colonel were staring at each other with way too much lust in their eyes for anyone else on the plane to feel comfortable. Agent Stromberg broke up the tension by asking. 

"So, Hekapoo, how do you feel about Earth, about humanity. I'm really looking forward to learning more about how you do dimensional magic." 

"Oh, Earth is kinda cool, I guess. The human population is way higher than any other planet I have visited. There isn't another world in the multiverse that has half as many books as you do, as many uses for them or as many people who can read. I think I figured out why you don't use magic here. Every other civilization in the multiverse uses magic in some form or another. Some are really good at it, most suck, at least by my standards. Nothing and no one on Earth does though. At least not on any kind of grand scale. There are a few spells and tricks that humans know but they are weak, imprecise and most of them come at a hell of a cost to the users life." 

"For whatever reason humanity here took another path. Using technology instead of magic. Human technology on other planets doesn't advance far beyond things like crude metal forging and the wheel. If I were to show this aircraft to anyone else in the multiverse they would probably understand it to be a flying machine. But if I told them that it flew on a tank of burning fuel, not magic, no one would believe me." 

She sighed and said, "and on that note, after this is done I don't think that I can stay here anymore. You have your own path here and if I were to show you magic as it is done on other worlds I think that would make you just another magical civilization among many. Magic is like anything else according to the laws of thermodynamics. The energy to levitate an apple or blast an enemy across a room has to come from somewhere and I'm starting to think that one of the sources might be creativity. I haven't come up with a new spell for centuries of your time. Over the past few days I have come up with five, I'm brimming with ideas. As weird as you may think I am, your world is the weirdest I have ever visited. Not just because of all of your technology." 

Agent Stromberg stated, "well Ms Hekapoo, we will certainly miss you when you leave." 

"I won't be gone forever, I will come back from time to time. I might tell some of my friends about what it's like here. I can't help but wonder what new techniques a magician could develop here with the massive reserve of energies to work with. Without the weight and distractions of centuries of magic tradition. The inspiration they could draw to create something entirely new. Perhaps a deeper understanding of the universe itself. They would certainly become insanely powerful, or perhaps just insane. Anyway, the sun is going down, we should probably get some sleep."

"You sleep?" Asked Brickerson in an incredulous tone. 

"When I feel like it, and right now I really feel like it." 

She slid down the cover over her window, reclined her seat and manifested a blanket out of thin air. She turned down the flame above her horns to an almost nonexistent flicker and appeared to be fast asleep. The men seated around her suddenly felt quite drowsy. Three of the Rangers guessed that she had cast a sleep spell or something and fought to stay awake, they failed. 

The last man to fall asleep was Brickerson, mainly because he had a thought running over and over in his head. 

"I don't want her to leave." 

"Ah Christ, I must be losing my mind. Why am I making eyes at a demon?" 

Another voice in his head spoke, softly. 

"Because she is not a demon, she just kind of looks like one. You know why you don't want her to leave, she has done more favors for you in the past week than anyone else has in your entire life. You don't want her to leave because you don't want the gravy train to get derailed." 

"Yeah, that's probably it." 

The 707 landed at Tan Son Nhut Airport. Waiting at there was a CH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant heavy transport helicopter and a pair of Cobra Gunships to escort them to the River God's current stomping grounds. As circumstances would have it his last reported location was nineteen miles from the site of the last attempt to eliminate him had failed. Hekapoo asked, "Take me to the battle site first. I need to get my bearings before I meet him." 

The helicopters turbines were spun up. As the machine lifted into the air Hekapoo couldn't help but notice that this was a much more uncomfortable machine than the 707. The seats were just stretched fabric, it stank like the swamps of Titan and she could feel parts grinding against each other. At some point this contraption was going to either run out of fuel or a part would fail and it would fall out of the sky. She could survive a crash in this thing, no problem. But the thought of delicate little humans riding these things for more than a few minutes seemed insane. As they flew away from the airport she shouted into Brickerson's ear, "you really need to build better helicopters." 

"We will get right on that, so, what's the plan of attack?"

"You drop me off where Hines got snuffed, I go after the River God. That's all you need to do." 

"What about the gunships, or the Rangers, or Me?" 

"I don't need any of you, best case you will just slow me down. Worst case the River God uses you as a meat shield." 

Brickerson nodded, memories of the previous operations washed through his mind. None of the men who had backed up Hines had survived except for him. The River God only killed three quarters of them. The rest had been taken out by wayward artillery and air strikes. Brickerson took a map out of his pocket and shouted over the whine of the engines. 

"An ironic choice of words Hekapoo. Before we get there, I was handed some intel right before we took off. The NVA and most of the Vietcong in the area have pulled back. But there are reports of some hard cases who refuse to leave. The latest reconnaissance suggests that a few of them might be engaging the River God." 

"I don't need to deal with a bunch of guys with guns getting in the way of my quarry Colonel." 

"Well what can I say, if they won't leave then they won't leave. The River God has probably turned them into bug zombies by now." 

"Those I can probably deal with." 

Brickerson picked up a handheld radio. It wasn't standard issue, it had been built specifically for black ops missions, small, unusually strong with a crude encryption system. "When you have neutralized the River God, use this to call for us and we will pick you up. Just press the button on the side." 

She examined the radio and said, "alright, I'll call you once this thing is dealt with." 

The helicopters arrived over the battle site. Hekapoo could feel the energies emitting from the place. The scars from the battle on the jungle still hadn't healed yet. The pilot announced, "there is an LZ two clicks from here. That's as close as I can land." 

"You can't, but I can!" 

She turned to Brickerson and slipped off the watch. "Your watch Colonel, I won't need it anymore. Good luck to you all and get the fuck out of here!"

Hekapoo gave Brickerson a quick kiss on the cheek and leapt out of the back of the helicopter, 50 feet in the air. As soon as she hit the ground she generated a dozen clones that started running, just fast enough that the helicopters could keep up. Two ran north, two ran south, the rest ran towards Cambodia. There was a really nasty government that was consolidating their power there. Eight clones should be able to neutralize it, if not then at least they would provide the distraction needed to keep everyone off her back while she dealt with the River God. 

When she had thrown those men into another dimension she hadn't done it just as a punishment for their stupidity. It had been a test to see if these Earthlings were really worthy of her help. She had kept an eye on them for all the decades that they wandered the wasteland. They had fought tenaciously, defended the weak and clung together through the worst that her world had thrown at them. After such a display of strength the least she could do was deal with their monster problem.


	5. Code Duello.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So we come to the final chapter, the longest and the one with the most fireworks. What you all came here to see, the battle between our two biggest, baddest characters. Enjoy.

Death. 

So much death. 

The jungle was growing over the craters and other damage left by the war. There hadn't been any fighting in this spot for well over a year, but this place still reeked of death. The energies left by lives painfully extinguished hung low over the land like a choking black cloud. Invisible to all but the most sensitive of Earthlings, and her. Hekapoo had seen war before, she had started one and finished fifteen. She had never seen anything remotely like this. War on an industrial scale fought with weapons designed to kill thousands of people at a time. Magical weapons were usually designed and used to incapacitate and capture. Even the most insane monster could be a useful slave once it's spirit was broken. This was something completely foreign to the wars that she was used to. 

She couldn't handle it, she fell to her knees and cried. As soon as the River God was dealt with she knew she was going to have to leave. There was nothing more she could do to change this Earth. This was no place for her, no place for anything magical. Everything about this place was wrong, the energy of this planet had been tempting. However after sampling the miasma of utter madness that this place had become she knew that it was more than she could handle. In time the madness of this place would infect her, she might even forget who she was. 

She stood up and looked around as far as she could. Broken terrain and wet jungle as far as the eye could see. One of her clones running south had already tripped on a root and fallen into a stream, snuffing out her existence. It was like some higher power had built this battlefield specifically to give the River God every advantage and her every disadvantage. She stretched her arms over her head and stated to anyone in earshot. 

"Well, if I ever meet the higher power who created this world we are going to have to have a long talk about what they created. Since they aren't here right now I suppose I have to fix this myself." 

She started casting spells. Summoning fiery patterns in the air and tracing images on the earth in arcane recipes of of dusts and potions to strengthen the fabric of reality. It would make it hard, perhaps impossible for her to make dimensional portals within a fifty mile radius for a good long time. It would also eliminate the River Gods ability to harvest energy from other dimensions and make it impossible for an unskilled magic user like him to create portals. 

Now for the hard part. Undoing the River Gods primary power source. The storm of horrible energies swirling around the region. This would require one of the most powerful spells in all of existence. An obscure, obscenely powerful and dangerous incantation that had to be delivered in three parts ending with the defeat of the River God himself. She began the spell, which would have sounded like a barely audible murmur to anyone listening. The last part of each section of the incantation had to be delivered as a message to someone. She spoke in English. 

"For all this world, of sacrifice and blood, return! Rise you who stood against the impossible. Return from your exile Sergeant Hines!" 

Energies swirled, a phantom appeared in front of her. That of a middle aged man in an army uniform. As he opened his eyes he shouted. 

"Gah, holy fucking shit, I'll rip your goddamn skull off you damned... Hey wait, what's happening?" 

"I regret to inform you that you died Sgt. Hines. The River God won that little epic battle you two had. I suspected that he got so mad at you that he didn't harvest your soul like so many others. That he destroyed every living cell in your body and drove your soul into the dirt. Where you would have remained forever if I hadn't shown up." 

"I'm dead, oh god, hey who the hell are you? What the hell are you? Am I in hell? Are you a demon?!" 

"My name is Hekapoo, you are not in hell just yet and despite appearances I am not a demon. I am an inter-dimensional sorcerer. Your government summoned me by accident while they were trying to come up with a way to fight the River God after you got stomped. They cut a deal with me and I have started undermining his power by freeing your soul from the ground he trapped it in. You can move on to the afterlife now. I'm sure that there is a nice reward waiting for you there for all your suffering and sacrifice." 

"I can't." 

Sigh, "because the River God isn't dead yet?" 

"There is no way I can rest until he is gone." 

With her right palm over her face she replied in exasperation. 

"I understand, but consider this, you died! By what measure have you not fulfilled your duties to your God and country, or whatever. What else can you possibly give Sergeant? All you have left is your soul and if the River God sees you floating around here he will eat you like he has eaten so many others." 

"I know that, still, I can't leave." 

"Alright fine, just float there and try to stay out of my way. Seriously, what more can you do that you haven't already done? Say Boo at the River God? I don't think a mass murdering walking skeleton is going to be all that scared of the ghost of a guy he has already killed." 

The ghost of Sgt. Hines just nodded. She looked up, observing the local magical energy stream. Despite her spells it was all flowing like a tidal wave to the north. 

The ghost asked "You can sense him too?"

"After a fashion, yes. he is coming closer, about twelve miles away now. We need to get him before he can figure out what I am. Alright Sergeant, let's go meet your little friend. Try to keep up." 

She took off running through the jungle, even with the broken terrain and all the trees she was going to close the ten miles in minutes. She could see raw seething power, right over the next hill. All of humanities most potent and strange weapons had failed against this freak. It was time to see what something not of this Earth could do. Wrapped around her bandolier of grenades was an enchanted whip. Seemingly an odd weapon, but in her estimation this was the best tool for the job. She was about to run straight into the River God when Hines shouted.

"Stop!" 

She halted instantly, pointing to the ghost. "I didn't stop because you said so. I need to say the next part of the incantation." 

The sorcerer and the ghost moved warily around the hill. Both of them could see a malevolent whirlpool of energy falling like a trillion gallons of water on something just in front of them. 

She had a pretty good idea of what he was. But an idea of something on the basis of incomplete evidence is not the same as seeing it with your own eyes. For starters she was expecting a walking skeleton. This thing had covered itself in the flesh of numerous victims giving it a shape unlike anything she had ever seen across a thousand dimensions. 

The River God didn't notice the woman with a plume of fire in her horns or the ghost of one of his victims because he was busy finishing off a Vietcong ambush. The last two ambushers were about to die, blazing away desperately with their AKM rifles on full auto. As she had seen in the briefing their bullets were ineffective. Merely going around the monster like fast flowing water around a boulder. She could finally measure the true extent of its power. Even by reality warper standards this thing was strong. A dozen heavily armed men were no more a concern to him than a few fleas on a dogs back. There was a strange, almost alien sensation creeping up Hekapoo's spine. 

Fear. 

How long had it been since she felt fear? Probably when she last saw Eclipsa. That was quite awhile ago. The most talented of a long line of unusually powerful sorcerers. Her dabbling in the dark arts had led her to a place where she had become so dangerous that she had to be neutralized. Still for all her sins she been conscious. She could be downright charming, if she wasn't in a bad mood she could even be reasoned with. This thing did not look like it could be reasoned with. It didn't act like it had a soul. Yet it was drunk on the power gained by consuming thousands of souls. A long time ago it may have been human, now it was just pure evil walking the Earth. 

As the last two Vietcong ran out of ammunition they began to levitate. A dozen bodies flew into the air in a circle. It was oddly entrancing to watch, a terrible beauty. They were being changed into something not human, not animal, not alive, not dead. It was like this thing had experimented with all the ways that it could create the worst horror to inflict on its victims and this is what it had settled on as the worst of the worst. It may have been pure evil but she had to give him points for style and creativity. 

She commenced the second phase of the spell. As she read out the incantation she realized that she was speaking louder than she should. Her lips and voice were trembling. Normally putting emotion into a spell made it stronger, not when the emotion was fear. It took everything she had just to continue the incantation. The last part of the spell had to be a message and there was only one thing that she could deliver that message to. She shouted in English. 

"River God, I'm, I'm going to give you one cccc-hance to surrender!" 

It stopped, he had heard her. At a range of 75 yards the fight had begun. Hines screamed, "get down!" 

A telekinetic attack, she was able to see it spiraling towards her from the reality warpers mind. She was able to deflect it towards a nearby tree, which exploded. 

"Okay, this thing isn't in the mood to surrender. I will have to fix that." She quipped to the ghost as she commenced her counterattack. She was never going to trump this things mastery of telekinesis, she was going to have to use her whip. That meant getting closer to it. She started running at the monster, even though every fiber of her being was screaming at her to run someplace else. 

Normally she could close the distance without any concern. However seeing as this thing had the ability to deflect and redirect bullets in flight it could keep up with the Sorceresses's speed without any great effort. Another telekinetic attack, this one hit. She felt her body being torn in five different directions. Her body was a little tougher and a little stranger than what the River God was used to. She leapt through the attack, it was like throwing herself through a plate glass window, she kept running. She unfurled the whip but before it could strike the River God one of the zombies got in its way. 

The whip, crackling with magical energies was rendered powerless as it struck the zombie. As effective as a wet noodle. Her eyes went wide as she launched herself backward, backflipping away from the zombies. Once she stopped hazy memories of almost forgotten conversations with other sorcerers suddenly blared through her mind. Zombies weren't common in the multiverse. Too much of an investment of magical energy for a virtually worthless payoff. Zombies were useless servants, terrible soldiers and generally weren't useful for anything other than scaring very lightly armed villagers and stinking up a place. However one of the general rules with zombies is that magical weapons usually aren't effective against them. They absorbed magical energy like a sponge to keep themselves animated. 

The River God motioned for his undead horde to attack. With her whip useless Hekapoo froze. As they shambled towards her she wondered in terrified curiosity what was going to happen to her magic infused body when these zombies got their hands on it. Hines screamed to her, "hey, get your head in the game, run dammit!"

She looked at him, she hadn't noticed before but when Hines came back from the dirt he had brought spectral echoes of all his gear with him. His uniform, rifle, backpack, sidearm and a ghostly wooden spear. Pictures of Hines from the Pentagon briefing snapped into her minds eye. During his hunt for the River God Hines had developed the habit of using wooden spears in addition to his modern weapons. 

She snapped her fingers confidently and announced to the zombies. "I'll be with you in just one moment." 

She leapt up into the branches a nearby tree. She energized her hand as much as she could, creating an improvised saw. Then she reached for the strongest branches she could find. Within moments she had fashioned a simple staff. Creating twenty clones they all started doing the same thing with other branches. Once they were all suitably armed the original and her copies dropped back to the ground to engage the bug zombies. As she ran towards the undead horde she shouted. 

"Fuck! I should have kept that halberd!" 

Hekapoo hadn't been in hand to hand combat in a very long time. Her technique was sloppy and the bug zombies were much tougher than she expected. Their magically charged bug like secondary skeletons gave them the ability to survive strikes which would have easily killed a human. Still, she had the advantages of speed, strength and numbers. Chunks of zombies went flying across the jungle with every hit. Suddenly one of the copies went out. It had struck a zombie so hard that her staff had exploded in a cloud of splinters.

This was the fate of most of the copies. They calculated this as the most effective way of winning the fight. Two weren't so lucky. They were grabbed by three zombies, taken to the ground. One was snuffed out when a zombie fell face first onto her flame. The last one was saved when the original Hekapoo smacked the last zombie off of her. 

She looked down in horror at the copy. She was wailing in agony, her clothes ripped to shreds, left horn broken off, arm spikes covered in zombie juices where she had flailed about trying to get them off of her. The zombie remains were still sapping energy from it, dooming the copy to an extremely slow death. She stopped screaming just long enough to say the word, "please" to the original. As kindly as she could, she blew out the copies flame. 

The River God saw all this happen and just stood there, it's impossible to read the emotions of a skeleton. Especially one covered in layers of meat. But something strange was ticking through the brain that animated his existence, confusion. This she-demon was unlike anything he had ever seen. He who had tread the Earth as a God incarnate. Who had seen things beyond anything mere mortals could comprehend. This demon had managed to confuse him. He thought he had left confusion behind when he stopped being human. He wondered for a moment if he could still talk and if he could if he could ask what she was. 

No, the demon was wearing a US Army uniform. She had American weapons. She had clearly come here to kill him like all the others had. All he really knew anymore was that if they wore a uniform and carried arms on his land, they had to die. Didn't matter if this thing was American, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, whatever. He had to kill it. 

Hekapoo stood up from the pile of zombie parts and screamed bitterly as she ran towards the River God. She was going to tear this thing to pieces with her bare hands if need be. She unfurled the whip again, but when it struck there was an unexpected complication. The meat that the River God had sheathed himself in simply sloughed off when she pulled on the whip. Instead of tearing the monster in two, twenty pounds of fresh human flesh came flying towards her face. 

Unfortunately for her she had her mouth wide open in shock as the meat missile sped towards her. Splattering all over her face, neck and hair. As it fell to the ground she sprayed blood from her mouth and scraped off the remaining gore shouting, "oh come on!" 

The River God looked down at his now meatless arm. More confusion, more fear, nothing had ever gotten close enough to touch him during a battle except napalm bombs. He funneled all his power into another telekinetic attack. Forces that could lift a dozen tanks and helicopters struck Hekapoo. His first couple of telekinetic attacks had been of a power level suitable for mere mortals, now that he knew that he was up against something as tough as he was he didn't hold back. 

As she was pulled into the air she could feel her arms, legs, even the joints of her toes, fingers and jaw being pulled in fifteen different directions. Once her body failed she knew that the River God would keep tearing and breaking until there would be nothing left of her in this world. He was trying to invade her body with his mind. Understand it, harvest her energies. The dim light of consciousness started lighting up in his brain, curiosity began to burn in his mind as he wondered what he could do with this unique being and her incredible energies once he consumed her soul. 

She knew that he couldn't eat her soul. Harvesting inter dimensional energies from uncooperative subjects was a martial art that few could attempt, especially not an unskilled opponent like him. She had also sealed her soul against that kind of attack before she had materialized in Hawaii. But even the most powerful beings in the known multiverse couldn't survive an attack that completely annihilated their bodies down to the molecular level. 

Curiosity echoed through her mind. What was going to happen when she died? She honestly wasn't sure. The sealing spell meant that her soul couldn't be harvested. But where would it go? Perhaps she would be reborn someplace else and have to start all over again. Perhaps she would be reincarnated into a newborn on Earth. Forced to live for who knows how long in a body which couldn't contain her true strength. Some poor little girl born with horns and the ability to run rings around any human while wearing high heels. Or even worse perhaps, she might be reincarnated into a male body! She laughed through her tears of pain at the absurdity of that image. 

Her death would act like a beacon to the Magical High Commission. They would probably send Rhombulus to neutralize the River God. Reality warpers and rogue sorcerers were more his thing than hers anyway. She relaxed at the knowledge that the River God would not triumph regardless of what happened today. Then she wondered what adventure was about to begin for her. What weirdness that it would entail. The pain was fading, replaced by the blinding light of oblivion as she began to accept her death. 

Then she realized she couldn't let that happen, her pride wouldn't allow it. She said that she was going to take out the River God and she was going to do just that. She forced herself to focus on her body. Which seemed to be nothing but pain as everything she was, was either being torn apart or transmogrified into some other substance. 

She was unable to move her hands in the precise ways needed for a spell. There was no way she could turn her screams into an incantation. She had dropped the whip. All she could do was pull her arms to her chest to resist the force that was trying to rip out her arms and beat her to death with them. She felt the cold metal of the bandolier of grenades. She managed to thread one out. The pin went flying thanks to the telekinetic attack. Hekapoo smiled at the small favor and with her last ounce of strength she threw it behind the River God. She honestly didn't expect it to work. No other Earthling weapon had done much to this thing, except annoy it. 

The grenade detonated, the initial explosion was barely noticed by the River God. However behind that came a massive discharge of exotic energy from the nine needles inside. The needles were an odd substance, a dangerous byproduct of manufacturing dimensional scissors. A slag which was both molecularly unstable and incredibly powerful. Four needles buried themselves into the River God's back right before the molecules inside them gave up maintaining cohesion. Each of the needles detonated with the force of a thousand pound aircraft bomb. 

The River God and Hekapoo were sent flying. Hundreds of feet from where they were. Hekapoo was able to hit the ground with some grace, landing on her feet. While the River God was unceremoniously smashed through several trees. Hekapoo gasped and went into a fetal position for a moment. Checking that hadn't lost any limbs. Once she confirmed that she was all in one piece she got back on her feet and looked at the pile of tree parts that left a cartoonish trail of destruction to where the River God lay some ways away from her. 

She began an incantation, a lightning spell, the longer the incantation was drawn out the more lighting will strike the target. 

The River God pulled himself up from under a huge pile of splinters and noticed the demon woman was speaking in a language he couldn't hope to understand while increasingly ominous clouds gathered over his head. The words repeated, the same thirty syllables over and over again. He saw what she was doing. She was summoning energy like he did, a lot of it. So much that he couldn't draw enough energy to use another telekinetic attack like the last one. 

As River God ran towards Hekapoo. Her incantations became steadily louder, rumbling the very earth itself. Tears fell from her eyes as she funneled the pain of the telekinetic attack and seeing her copy broken on the ground into the spell. Even with all the debris the River God was going to cover the distance between them shortly. He was holding a large and ugly shard of wood. Thinking back to faintly remembered folk tales he was going to try to ram a wooden stake through this monsters heart. She wasn't a vampire, but there aren't many beings that can live through being impaled with a sharp wooden stake. She realized that she was going to have to strike without the full force of the spell. 

At a distance of five feet he raised the stake over his head to plunge it into his opponents chest. Hekapoo uttered the final syllable. Three lightning bolts fell in rapid succession. The gore that the River God had coated himself in exploded as the water in the flesh was flash boiled by the rare phenomena of a continuous lightning strike. The huge stake was blown out of his hands as it dissolved into a blackened piece of carbon wafting on the wind. Even though the River God took the brunt of the blast, Hekapoo was knocked to the ground by the massive concussion and electrical spillover. As she came to she felt the warm earth in her hands. She sat up and saw that everything around her was destroyed. But the River God wasn't dead yet, he was crawling away from her. The flesh that had made her whip ineffective was gone. He was back to the walking skeleton that she had been expecting. 

"Damn it, this guy doesn't know when to quit!" She shouted in exasperation and started another incantation. A cleansing flame spell. Fire have as much raw power as lightning but she needed something more persistent. The River God saw the flame above her head expand to the size of a fully grown oak tree and made himself invisible. That wasn't going to save him. Even regular fire made him visible. 

The huge plume of flame fell on the monster like an avalanche he screamed. Hekapoo screamed back at him. 

"Die you motherless giant invisible goat sucking spawn of Belgium! Die!" 

The River God turned around and started crawling towards her. Hekapoo poured more power into the fire, he stood up and walked through the flames. His skeletal hands wrapped around her neck. Nothing she had ever fought had ever gotten close enough to strangle her. But what was really scaring her were the variety of new sensations that were exploding across her neck, chest and arms. Even though she was a being of fire, somehow, this thing was burning her. He was taking her attack and using it against her. 

"This shouldn't be possible." Echoed though her mind as she ended the spell. She simultaneously slashed with her arm spikes and kicked against the River God's chest. He let go as she crashed to the ground. He screeched in pain, Hekapoo looked down at her arms and hands, charred by the heat of her own flame! Terror and disbelief clamped down on her. "This. Isn't. Possible!" She screamed as she collapsed from pain and exhaustion, into the burning mud. 

Oblivion, a black void filled with nothing but screams, so many screams. The screams of his victims. The screams of the Vietcong, the screams of the Americans. The screams of Chinese, Japanese and Cambodian invaders. Layers of invasions, death, pain on this cursed earth. This was all Hekapoo could see, all she could understand, all she knew. Hell, her own personal hell, with nothing but the screams of the rest of the damned to accompany her for all eternity. 

"Well, this is certainly a thousand times worse that what I imagined would happen." She observed as she fell further into the void. Then a thought occurred. 

She didn't deserve this. 

No one deserved this, least of all her. 

Then she noticed among the voices there was one that sounded familiar. She focused on it. Then she realized that it knew her too, it was screaming her name as loud as it could. 

She opened her eyes, the ghost of Sgt. Hines was screaming about an inch above her face. 

"Hekapoo please wake up, he is getting away!" 

She tried to stand up, her body wasn't cooperating. It was healing as fast as it could, but she was well and truly hurt. Nothing had ever put her immortality to the test quite like this. Pain racked her body, as she tried to stagger up again. Her yelps of pain suddenly changed into an ironic laughter as she measured her pain against the ocean of pain that everyone else who had fought this thing went through. It was nothing compared to theirs, yet here she was, on the ground like a weakling. 

She looked over to see a charred skeleton with a few bits of flame still sticking to it limping away as fast as it could. She looked back at the ghost of the sergeant. He hugged her. Quite a day when being hugged by a ghost was actually one of the more boring things that happens. He asked. 

"Can you walk?" 

"No, not yet, but I will be able to shortly. Thanks for dragging me out of the abyss of non existence." 

"Yeah about that, don't you have a spell that can just erase him like he did to me? I mean we have all tried blowing him to kingdom come with fire and bombs and shit and all that seems to do is make him stronger." 

"Yeah, I do have a spell that will do that and believe it or not I have been using it. However I have to get him to hold still long enough to read the full incantation. That means I have to beat him down so much that he can't move." 

"Oh, well then, what do we do next?" 

"I am going to kill that bastard. You need to get out of here, off to the afterlife. You have already helped me more than a ghost should. I don't think the River God is going to tolerate any more of your interference." 

"All due respect ma'am, I ain't going nowhere." 

"Alright, I think I can walk now. Just try to hang back and not get his attention." 

Hekapoo limped over the hill following the trail of scorch marks. As she walked she felt her burned skin and flesh begin to dissolve away. Quickly healing, although painfully. The River God was still smoldering, stumbling towards a nearby stream. As she staggered after him Hines pointed to a fallen tree. Her whip had landed in its branches after being blasted across the countryside. 

The River God was smaller than he had been. What remained of his flesh and tendons were long gone, his charred bones were being held together by nothing but willpower and a sticky residue of magical energy. He was barely holding together, more ghost than corporeal being. A few more hits and he would be done for. Hekapoo began another incantation, the Hands of Stone. Every rock in the area was drawn towards the River God. To trap him in a crushing embrace. The River God realized what was happening once he was up to his knees in rocks. He launched another telekinetic attack, which Hekapoo parried. She took another grenade from her bandolier. She walked towards him with as much swagger in her step that she could manage. She was going to shove the grenade into his jaws and pile rocks on top of him to contain the explosion. She just stood there and waited for the rocks to do their job. The River God roared in frustration as the rocks kept on coming. He looked around desperately for something he could use as a weapon, there was a crashed helicopter on the other side of the stream. 

Using telekinesis he disassembled the remains of the helicopter and flung it at Hekapoo, faster than a bullet. The aluminum and steel of the helicopters body simply dissolved before impact. She was protected against projectile weapons by a spell that poured magical energy into any projectile that came near her so that it simply exploded in a puff of smoke. As the stones were beginning to close around his head the River God hurled the choppers engine at the sorceress. Or more precisely the hand she held the grenade with. 

The engine hit her like a ton of bricks. The grenade was caught in the engine and both of them went flying, exploding a quarter of a mile away. With her concentration broken the stone spell dissolved. They looked at each other with confusion for a moment, then Hekapoo looked at her right hand. 

Two fingers were barely hanging on. Her entire hand and most of her wrist had been slashed down to the bone. Nothing on that helicopter should have hurt her, it was just steel and other metals, a little plastic. Somehow it had almost cut her hand clean off. She started to puzzle all this out. 

She realized that it was a part of the engine that had hit the grenade, the rear turbine blades. Thinking back to what she had read about jet engines she knew it to be the part of the engine that has to endure the highest temperatures for the longest time. These parts were made out of a metal called Inconel. A non magnetic, nickel-iron alloy that was incredibly tough and impossibly dense. Something very hard to make here on Earth and unheard of anywhere else in the multiverse. Inconel had been on a list of stuff that she had intended to acquire after putting down the River God. It had interested her, she thought it might be useful in the manufacturing of exotic magical items. Apparently it was so tough it could withstand the shielding spell that protected her from projectiles. Through trial, error and sheer dumb luck the River God had found something that could hurt her. 

She started running towards the River God, as fast as her body could manage. Which with all the damage felt painfully slow. Planning, tactics and magic went flying out the window. She had to kill him now. Clones split off from her, as many as she could crank out. She was going to have to sacrifice all of them, that didn't matter. All that mattered was stopping the River God. 

The River God disassembled the remnants of the helicopter's second engine and threw them towards the growing army of Hekapoos charging down the hill. He was aiming at their flames, "this bastard may not be very talkative, but he sure is a quick learner." She thought as she cocked back the whip. 

Chunks of helicopter swirled around all of her like a tornado, snuffing out the remaining copies. Her own flame was becoming precariously weak. That wouldn't kill her immediately though having her flamed snuffed out would make her vulnerable to attack. She pressed on. 

She struck, the whip wrapped around the River Gods right arm. With one huge pull she removed the arm, sending it flying, fifty yards away. The River God reached for a shard of Inconel with his left arm and tried to use it to slash at the whip. But she wasn't whipping towards his arm, she was aiming at his legs. 

As strange and simplistic as it may sound most magical battles come down to a simple battle of wills. There was nothing left in Hekapoo's universe except sheer determination to beat this thing. While the River God was confused, baffled, even amazed by what Hekapoo had done. He had no more tricks, no more weapons. Once the whip wrapped around his legs he knew he was done. She yanked him off his feet into a rag doll beating. Trees exploded and boulders cracked as Hekapoo swung the River God into every solid thing she could find. 

Finally, after the twentieth impact, the River Gods remains started to break. His skull cracked, his rib cage began to shatter. His remaining arm flew away. The River God had been a manifestation of sheer will, powered by an ocean of grief. That will was finally breaking, he had found an enemy that he could allow himself to be defeated by. As his body crumbled and his brain was about to splash across the rocks one last emotion echoed through his being, that he was grateful that this madness and pain was finally coming to an end. 

With the River God reduced to a collection of bone fragments, Hekapoo collapsed from exertion. But she wasn't done yet. She copied herself, five times. The copies wandered around picking up the pieces of the River God and duping them at the originals feet. He may have been defeated, but he wasn't dead just yet. 

Once the last few bone shards were found and deposited in the pile the original Hekapoo knelt before it and started the third part of the grand unwinding spell. This time the incantation ended with words in Vietnamese. 

"Your pain broken, your path run. Return to that which you lost, release the burden of your existence. The war is over, go in peace fallen one." 

The bones simply dissolved into nothing. The spirit that animated them had let go of his existence. He went to the afterlife. Hekapoo fell backwards, staring up at the sky, utterly exhausted. As a massive energy discharge erupted from the ground the five copies were snuffed out by the beginning of a truly massive reprocessing of energy. The jungle released the power that had cursed it. The clouds cleared and the sun shone down. The ghost of Sgt. Hines hovered over her for a few moments, and smiled. He knelt down and whispered kindly in her right ear. 

"Thank you." 

Then it was his turn to let go, floating up into the vast diffusion of energy that was scintillating into the air. 

As she stared up at the beauty that was unfolding around her she laughed. Triumph, amusement, exhaustion rippled through her body as she savored this hard fought victory. Off in the distance she heard the sound of turbojet and turbo shaft engines. She knew that distant reconnaissance planes had seen everything. Colonel Brickerson was probably coming to pick her up. She also knew that it would take awhile for the news of her victory to filter through regular channels. She reached down for the little radio the Colonel had given her. Clicked the transmit button, amazed that the device had survived the battle. She announced to whoever was on that frequency in a raspy, breathless tone. 

"It's done, the River God is no more. I expect you all to hold up your end of the bargain. If not I will be seeing you all... really soon." 

Releasing the button she observed that this was a really simple and elegant means of communication. Still she couldn't help but feel that she could come up with something better. She clipped the radio back on her bandolier and wondered for just a moment what she was going to do with all this wonderful new technology she had learned about. Then she remembered that was all well and good but she had to get the fuck off of Earth first. She patted around at the unfamiliar contours of her fatigues. So many pockets, she murmured. 

"Oh crap, if I lost them again, I'm going to have to ask these people for..." 

She found her pair of dimensional scissors, she was not going to need to beg for a ride home. She squealed out a triumphant, "yes!" and leapt to her feet. Within a half and hour she was out of range of the dimensional sealing spell. Once she was clear she cut a portal to the realm of Mewni. Before the dimension portal experiment had demanded her attention she had been preparing to join a campaign there. Their monsters had been getting a little frisky. 

At the least her most recent trip to Earth would make for some interesting conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this primarily as a training exercise. I'm used to writing stories from a single characters perspective. I need to brush up on my ability to write from multiple perspectives. Criticisms are welcome.


End file.
